Topic: Nokia

Looking to gain ground on Apple's iPhone and devices running Android, Microsoft was reportedly close to purchasing Finnish phone maker Nokia's device business, with discussions going on as recently as this month.

Nokia on Tuesday revealed the next chapter in its comeback effort, showing off the Lumia 925: a Windows Phone that marks a shift by the company toward a new design aesthetic with lightweight components.

Reaching for any way to regain share lost to Apple and other competitors, Nokia on Friday revealed a new version of its flagship Lumia handset, redesigned and exclusive to Verizon, capping off a week in which it also looked to tackle the low end of the smartphone market with $99 phones.

Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform may have stumbled out of the gates, but that hasn't stopped the software giant from poking fun at smartphone industry-leading rivals Samsung and Apple in a new commercial touting Nokia's Lumia 920.

With Apple known to be working overtime in its efforts to reduce its dependance on Samsung as a component supplier, word comes that other companies, including Nokia, are also considering plans to do the same thing, for similar reasons.

According to new statistics released on Monday, Apple's share of global mobile internet usage surpassed that of Nokia's in the fourth quarter of 2012, making the Cupertino company the number one mobile web presence in the world.

New research released on Thursday from market analysis firm Strategy Analytics shows that Samsung and Apple drove global smartphone shipment growth to a massive 43 percent in 2012, which amounted to a record breaking 700 million units shipped, with the Korean company's share skyrocketing to nearly one third of the market.

Apple this week was granted a patent for the design of SIM card connectors found in most mobile devices, a critical step for the company not only in terms of its future mobile hardware initiative but also its capacity to fend off ongoing opposition from rivals over the evolution of the technology.

Over the past two years, pundits have focused on living room TVs as the most likely new market for Apple to expand into, but evidence suggests that the company's next big step for iOS is more likely to involve the automotive market.

Apple's new Maps service in iOS 6 isn't the only option for obtaining maps, directions, traffic information, local search and area visualizations. Here's a look at how it and various third party mapping options for iOS users compare.